Season 1 of "The Pitt" was, to put it lightly, a rollercoaster. As we follow Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch (Noah Wyle, also an integral creative force behind the show and an executive producer) through a hellish, chaotic, and sometimes even ridiculous 15-hour shift at an overcrowded Pittsburgh hospital, some of his fellow doctors go through some pretty serious stuff. Chief among them is resident Dr. Frank Langdon, played by newcomer Patrick Ball, who is, by all appearances, Robby's protégé ...
which makes it particularly painful when Langdon does something so stunningly wrong (and illegal!) and betrays Robby's trust.
In a piece featured in Vanity Fair about the second season of "The Pitt," which is set to air in January 2025 and is in production as of this writing, Wyle talked about Langdon's return after his mandated rehabilitation program to deal with his prescription drug addiction. How is all of this going to work within the conceit of "The Pitt," in which every episode takes up a "real" hour? How do Robby and Langdon even end up working at the same time after the drama of Langdon's aforementioned betrayal?
"Robby is going on a sabbatical tomorrow for three months on a motorcycle, and was really hoping not to see [Langdon] today — but something got screwed up in the scheduling, so they ended up overlapping," Wyle explained in the piece. He continued:
"Langdon has walked the penitent road and he has done everything he needs to do to keep his medical license in check. He's going to face his colleagues, who may or may not know that he had an addiction problem. All of that is very commendable. But there's a personal betrayal that Robby feels that is going to be even harder for him to get up and over on the other side of."
"In season one ...[Langdon] is at the height of his confidence and at the height of his charm and his ability," Ball said in the same feature. "And then he gets knocked good and thoroughly off of that."
Frankly, I find it a little laughable that an emergency room doctor like Robby would even go near a motorcycle — one of my best friends is a surgical resident and has warned me against ever riding one — but I'll accept this explanation. In any case, what did go down between Robby and Langdon in season 1 of "The Pitt?"
Read more: 15 Best Movies Without An Oscar
What Exactly Happened Between Robby And Langdon During Season 1 Of The Pitt?
When we first meet Dr. Frank Langdon in season 1 of "The Pitt," he's a star resident who works closely with Dr. Robby — to the point where Robby even tells Langdon that he submitted his student for a prestigious fellowship. It's clear, even to the untrained eye of audience members who don't work in medicine, that Langdon is good at his job, and throughout his shift, he even picks up a protégé of his own: second-year resident Dr. Mel King, played by Taylor Dearden. This all comes crumbling down when one of the interns, Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), grows suspicious of Langdon and tips Robbie off about missing medication in the emergency department. As it turns out, Langdon was stealing Librium, a drug that helps with alcohol withdrawal, and in the episode titled "4:00 P.M.," Robby fires Langdon.
Though Langdon returns in "6:00 P.M." to help the emergency room handle the victims of a devastating mass shooting, he and Robby have a knock-down, drag-out argument once the carnage has cleared up somewhat. Langdon begs for a second chance, and Robby, unwilling to forgive his friend and colleague, tells Langdon he needs to go to rehab and is still in danger of potentially losing his medical license. In an interview with Variety in June 2025, Patrick Ball discussed that season 2 of "The Pitt" takes place 10 months after the first concludes, so he's completed 3 months of treatment — and the specific timeframe, which is on the July 4 weekend, will present some great storytelling opportunities. "There's gonna be a lot of opportunities that pop up on July 4th weekend, which I think is exciting," Ball shared. "And I think also having Langdon be away in rehab for this period of time and then reenter this workspace also presents the writers with a lot of opportunities."
"When Langdon walks back in the door, people are different and things have changed, and I don't quite know what has happened while I was gone," he continued. "That presents a fun new game for the writers, that the audience gets to learn about what has changed and transpired in the time away through Langdon. So my absence provides the writers with a really useful device, and it'll be subjectively from Langdon's point of view."
The Bond Between Robby And Langdon Is One Of The Pitt's Most Vital And Fraught Relationships
There's a brief but welcome moment of levity towards the end of season 1 of "The Pitt," and it involves both Dr. Frank Langdon and Dr. Robby. After Langdon's grand return, both men rush up to beleaguered charge nurse Dana Evans, played by Katherine LaNasa, to ask if the other is gossiping about him, driving her understandably crazy (bear in mind that, earlier in the season's "day," Dana got her nose broken by a disgruntled patient). This points to the fact that the mentor-mentee relationship between Robby and Langdon is incredibly vital to the series, whether Robby likes that or not. As for Langdon, as Patrick Ball pointed out in the Vanity Fair piece,
"You know, it's interesting. I'm in my prince-era here," Ball said in his Variety interview, which also focused on a production of "Hamlet" that Ball led in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum while also appearing in season 2 of "The Pitt." Ball continued:
"Langdon was the prince of this emergency department, and now he's quite a disgraced prince, very much like Hamlet, in that he's now reentering this workspace having been taken down quite a few pegs. And it will be very interesting to see how that workspace feels different and how he feels different in it and how other people handle him. Coming out of rehab, I think, will be a really juicy story to tell. I don't know that much about what they have planned because the writers are still very hard at work. But I am just dreaming up myself what is coming, because I think there's a lot of story to tell."
Ball is spot on — Langdon was an interesting and compelling character in season 1, but watching him emerge from what's hopefully his rock bottom and become a better physician and person in season 2 will likely be fascinating. Season 1 of "The Pitt" is streaming on HBO Max now, and again, season 2 should arrive in January 2026.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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